COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS
PERFORMANCE IN ECONOMICS IN
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL IN
EKITI STATE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the study
The constraint or yardstick in the
measurement or determine into of ones success, success or failure on an
assigned duty, specific task, education and or, in a business endeavour is by
the evaluation of his/her performance in their various subjects of study in
Nigeria is a thing of long time origin.
Public secondary
schools are supported and controlled by the government of the state. Adeyinka
(2010) stated that public schools are those schools that were established,
managed, financed, as well as supervised by the government. He further opined
that those schools were established with the tax payer's money in order to
educate the generality of the people irrespective of their economic, social or
political status in the society. Public secondary schools are neither
controlled by individuals, private interest groups, or agencies but by the
government. After the creation of Nigeria, all the schools that were
established were under the management and control of either the federal and
state government. All subjects were taught at the schools. But after some years
most public schools started suffering repercussion of neglecting the teaching
of some subjects in public secondary schools, subjects like French, history,
computer science among others.
MojeebAlabi in National mirror of September 23rd 2012 opined that History as a
subject seems to be receiving less attention; he attributed the problem to
constant
changes in government policy. He stated that Nigeria's educational policy is
seriously unfriendly to local contents in the curriculum, this notwithstanding,
lack of adequate funding, poor teachers salary among others adversely affect
the teaching and learning in most public schools.
As a result of this, private individuals, private
groups and organizationsstarted to establish, manage and finance private
schools to educate children and alsomake profit. The owners and proprietors of
those private schools are profit earners dueto the fact that they invested
their money in building the schools, providing all thenecessary facilities and
equipment, employment of qualified and competent teachers forthe purpose of
giving good education to the children and also making profits. These private
schools include in their curriculum all the subjects especially those not done
inpublic schools. Nwangwu (2000) stated that the private schools offer what the
publicschools cannot provide and that they relive parents the burden of having
their childrenstay at home for long periods of time as a result of continuous
strikes by teachers in thepublic schools. He stated that private schools run
without disruption in the schoolscalendar thereby providing steady and quality
education unlike the public schools.
Okpara
(2000) observed that in NECO Examinations, the performances of students
inprivate schools are better than the performance of students in public
schools. He alsostated that private schools are closely monitored and
supervised by the schoolmanagement boards, as a result; they perform better in
external examinations
Statement of the problem
Academic performance of students in
the Economics has received much attention in Nigeria on system At the beginning of
every academic year when Economics results are released, educational stakeholders
raise a lot of concerns about the falling performance of students. In Nigeria, public school
are three times the size and also have the highest number of student
than the private Schools. Currently
more private Schools are emerging and
are performing better in Economics Examination and most of the parents are taking
their wards from public to private on
the basis that private school provide
quality education, have good supervision, high parental commitment, motivation and
good methodology leading to the commitment of kids in their education than public school.
The researcher observed that there is unimpressive performance of students in
secondary school, the researcher therefore embarked on this study to find out
whether there is actually any performance difference in academic performance of
students in Economics between public and private schools in Ikere local government Area .
Objectives
of the study
This
study sets out to achieve the following objectives:
1.
To find out if there is significant difference in the academic performance of
male Students of private and public schools in Economics in Ekiiti State
2.
To find out if there is significant difference in the academic performance of
female Students of private and public schools in Economics in Ekiiti State
3.
To find out if there are significant differences in terms of school
equipment/facilities between the private and public Secondary schools in Ekiiti State
4.
To find out if there are significant differences in terms of qualification of
teachers in private and public Secondary
schools in Ekiiti State
5.
To find out if there are significant differences in terms of teacher welfare
package(s) in private and public Secondary
schools in Ekiiti State
1.4
Research questions
1.
Is there any significant difference in the academic performance of male
Students in public and private Secondary
schools?
2.
Is there any significant difference in academic performance of female Students in
public and private Secondary schools?
3.
Do private Secondary schools have better
equipment/facilities than the public Secondary
schools?
4.
Do private Secondary schools have more
qualified teachers than the public Secondary
schools?
5.
Do the private Secondary school teachers
have better welfare than the public Secondary
school teachers?
Research Hypotheses
1.
There is no significant difference in the academic performance of male Students
of public and private Secondary schools.
2.
There is no significant difference in the academic performance of female
Students of private and public Secondary
schools.
3.
There are no significant differences in the school facilities provided by
private and public Secondary schools.
4.
There are no significant differences in terms of qualification of teachers in
private and public Secondary schools.
5.
There are no significant differences in the teacher welfare provided by
Secondary school teachers of private and
public schools.
Significance
of the study
The
main aim of carrying out research in education is to bring about positive
improvement in the practice of education through finding new knowledge or
information. Therefore, this research is important in many areas to the
following stakeholders in the business of education for obtaining good output
in Secondary education
This study is significant and beneficial to the
teachers in many areas. The research
will make the teachers conscious of the current status of Secondary school Students’ academic performance in both
public and private schools in Ekiti state.
The study will also expose to them the factors responsible for the differences
in academic performance of the Students in public and private Secondary schools if there is any difference and
suggest the possible ways to be followed to remedy the situation. At the same
time, the research will reveal to them the significance of facilities required
for effective teaching- learning like adequate classroom space, curriculum system,
experienced and qualified teachers, game fields, teachers’ development etc,
The study is also important to students in their
learning process. The research will make them know the level of their academic
performance especially in social studies subjects. Thus, the students through
this research will be able to grasp certain areas of their considerable effort
and excellent academic performance in the subject they study, and also be aware
of their deficiencies in certain areas of their Economics subject.
The study is also paramount importance to students because the acquisition of
the suitable levels of literacy manipulative, communicative and good life
skills, values and norms will serve as bed-rock, for laying a sound foundation
for their future learning, improvement and development.
The
study is very crucial to the curriculum planners. The curriculum planners are
professional individuals who are well trained in curriculum management, they
are active participants in the field of curriculum and they are responsible for
curriculum planning as regards to contents and implementation procedures.
Therefore, curriculum planning has been seen as a collection of readings that
presents the knowledge, skills and alternative strategies needed by curriculum
planners and teachers at all levels of education from early childhood through
adulthood.
Thus, the curriculum planners through
this study will come to know whether the curriculum system of private
Secondary schools in the areas studied
is in line with public Secondary schools
curriculum system or not, so that a good action would be taken to ensure
similar curriculum system. However, if the curriculum system particularly in Economics is
similar in both public and private Secondary
schools in the study area, then the curriculum planners will have a
thorough knowledge on the current curriculum system of public and private
Secondary schools in the study areas.
The study will also reveal to them the
process involved of curriculum implementation in these selected public and
private Secondary schools in the three
different Educational zones.
The
research is also useful and beneficial to the federal, state and local
government education policy makers. The policy makers in education include: the
inister of education, commissioners of education, local government education
secretaries and so on. Therefore, the outcome of this research will give them a
clear picture of the level of academic performance of public and private
Secondary school Students. Having known
the academic performance of Secondary
school Students especially in Economics , the policy makers can create or formulate new
educational policy that will ensure the same curriculum system in both public
and private Secondary schools in
thestudy areas, and Ekiiti State in
general so as to achieve similar objectives in both publicand private
Secondary schools
Basic
Assumptions
The
research is based on the assumption that:
1.
Private and public schools have effective teachers of Economics .
2.
Private and public Secondary schools in Ekiiti State have adequate supply of instructional
materials for effective teaching of Economics subject.
3.
Both private and public Secondary school
Students in Ekiiti State perform
well in Economics subject.
4.
Both private and public Secondary
schools in Ekiiti State are
having good and
qualified
teachers of Economics subject.
Scope
of the study
The
scope of this study is limited to finding out the comparative academic
performance of Secondary school Students
in Economics in six (6) different Secondary schools selected from three local governments. The research is delimited
to male andfemale Students, teachers and head teachers. Therefore, teachers and
Students of Economics are covered by the study.
